In wide release the rather bloody Repo Men gives everyone something to think about this weekend. An excellent cast and a great premise, this one should be a favorite among the adrenalin junkies (that includes me). In more limited release, Hubble 3D is showing up at IMAX theaters in museums across the country. As more of these become available, a 3D DVD player and TV become more attractive.
There are some quality DVD’s coming out this week, and some much anticipated releases; but the two are not always the same. The one expected to pull the best numbers this time around is the perfect example of that: The Twilight Saga: New Moon sold tons of tickets to the prepubescent estrogen brigade, while generating noticeable amounts of negative reviews. Which attitude is the correct one depends on who you are, as always, but the saga will continue since the investment has been rewarded by the audience.
The other film that requires actual people to play the parts is Ninja Assassin distributed through Warner Brothers.
From the realm of TV we have the History Channel classic Clash of the Gods TV series. This is a bit different from most of the TV entries I post here, since it has some basis in reality. Some, but not a lot, thanks to the subject matter, so it gets a mention here.
The American animation of note is from Disney (what a surprise), with the title of the Princess and the Frog. Once again, they do a nice job on fitting the best music to the animation, and create a thoroughly enjoyable movie experience.
For imported animations, AstroBoy The Movie finally makes it to DVD, for those of us who missed it on the big screen. It has a serious history, starting in the 1930s or 1950s depending on which path you follow. It has also inspired every robot variant since then, many of which have been real-world builds.
While they don’t have any robots (yet), Genshiken 2 does have an interest in robots, and any other topic you might build a Manga, Anime, or Game out of. Even though it is called 2, this is actually the third series in the franchise. They took a break after the first series, and actually built the anime the characters in that series were watching, Kujibiki Unbalance.
And then there is Tayutama: Kiss On My Deity The Complete Collection. This one comes somewhere between Ah, My Goddes and Ah, My Buddha, and is a ton of fun. The final entry worth noting is Slayers Revolution, season 4 of the classic series. This season was built a decade after the others, reuniting the original cast and creating some closure (and delivering some new excitement).
The word is out that Robot Chicken will be giving the full treatment to Avatar and Twilight, as it did for Star Wars. They have done the first handful of episodes for season 5 and are continuing with production. Seth Green estimates 10 months until we get to see it on TV, but in the meantime season 4 is on the store shelves.
And then there is Fallout, a BBC funded project based on the Dark Horse Comics series Apocalypse Nerd. You can never have too much British End of the World comedy, after all. Right now it is only a pilot but with luck the BBC will pick it up for a full series. Thanks to SF Signal for the heads up on this one.
Fallout: Teaser Trailer from tupaq felber on Vimeo.
I haven’t seen it available in the US, but it has hit a lot of US Film Festivals according to the Anime News Network. I picked up the Korean anime Sky Blue: Wonderful Days as an imported sub in 2006, and it has won a boatload of awards since then. While not a replacement for Ghost In The Shell, it is a serious story; the animation is world class, the characters are fully realized, and the plot line is worth paying attention to.
The temptation to title this Neutron Trailer was sever, but successfully suppressed. Thanks to Trailer Addict, we have the new Tron trailer; it was way intense in 3D on the big screen last weekend…
I don’t see any new genre movies coming out this weekend, although The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights is going to be hitting some screens on Thursday. IO9 had some good news about an upcoming series of made-for-TV movies that SyFy will be presenting. It seems they have signed up Felicia Day as a Werewolf-hunting descendant of Little Red Riding Hood for their new Fairy Tale series. Considering what problems their made-for-TV movies have had, I think they should just put her in charge of the entire project.